I have so much to say. What its been like since the babies arrive. Life with NICU babes. The help & support from family & friends. Babies coming home! Sharing pictures, pictures, pictures! But for now that’ll have to wait.
At my two week postpartum appointment Monday morning, my MFM diagnosed me with Bell’s Palsy. I noticed issues drinking a diet coke bottle early last week. Then I looked in a mirror & saw that my smile didn’t go up on my left side. And by the end of last week, I noticed my left eye was tired/twitchy. I kinda thought all this was being tired or stressed. I was relieved Mon actually to know it was actually something know & not me going kinda crazy. I’m on breastfeeding safe steroids & have a follow up with an ENT at the beginning of July. My MFM said this could go away within days, weeks, months. It’s a motor issue only. I can’t feel that my smile on the left doesn’t work. But it does kick my butt to read. To watch too much TV. To play online. So I’m way behind on reading blogs, keeping up on Twitter. Instead I’m snuggling babies & hoping this goes away soon, so I can catch yall up on the fun.
Where She Went by Gayle Forman is actually the sequel to If I Stay. So in the last week (actually two weeks ago now), I read both. I couldn’t put either down; reading If I Stay as a library e-book from my phone Fri & Sun then finishing Where She Went in the hospital last Wednesday. These books are written under the young adult genre but are not quite as fluffy as somethings that ‘YA’ might lead you to believe.
Both IIS & WSW, describe the story of two musicians, Mia & Adam. Mia is a talented classic cellist while Adam is in a rock band called Shooting Stars. IIS is set in Oregon, from Mia’s point of view & mostly involves the story of her & Adam coming together as a couple, her family & the aftermath of a horrific car accident. WSW picks up on Adam & Mia’s lives but three years after the accident & told from Adam’s perspective, mostly taking place in NYC.
I really liked them both for what they are: entertaining quick reads. But Where She Went brought me to tears. I really didn’t want the book to end. In the way back of the novel though, there’s a glimpse at what I hope is a third!
When my book club was choosing books for the next couple months in the winter, someone threw out Honolulu as an idea for January. Then we all said while the book sounded good, we’d be too jealous of the sunny weather & beaches to read it while it was cold here. That was a good call.
I’ve never been to Hawaii. I know little about Hawaii’s history beyond the basics. I loved that Alan Brennert’s Honolulu spread some light on Hawaii’s history while telling the story of a girl turned woman named Regret.
There were parts that broke your heart. Parts when you were almost cheering out loud for the main character. Parts where I wanted to be right with them {like Sundays on the beach with surfer friends}.
I enjoyed the story of her life, her family, how she made the best of situations, & the female friendship relationships. How her experience sewing with her mother, something she enjoyed while being stuck in the inner rooms of her family home, turned into so much more & brought opportunities into her life she couldn’t have even dreamed of while growing up in Korea. My book club & I also loved the idea of Korea clothes being one sized ~ you just loosen or tighten them as you get fat/skinny!
Overall, I enjoyed the book. The author did a good job weaving in actual historical happens with the main character’s life. Sometimes this seemed random & there was major foreshadowing but that didn’t bother me. If you enjoy Hawaii or Korean literature, or are looking to read a story that combines both, definitely pick up Honolulu {it had a short waiting list at my library~yay}.
You Have No Idea is the new memoir by Vanessa Williams, her mother Helen Williams & with Irene Zutell. While I knew who Vanessa Williams was & basic information on her past, I didn’t know much beyond what you probably know: how she was Miss America but lost the title due to a photo scandal, that she’d had some singing hits back in the day & that more recently she’d played characters on Ugly Betty & Desperate Housewives. I don’t watch either of those shows though, so I didn’t even know the details of the characters she played.
So when BlogHer Book Club, mentioned they were reviewing her new book, I jumped on it. I thought it’d be fun {pre}summer reading & knew her story would at least be pretty interesting how she’d managed to jump around the entertainment business & rise above the scandal that started her career. And interesting, her story definitely was.
At first I thought the way You Have No Idea was set up was kinda weird; almost random. You learn snippets, then later there’s probably a chapter devoted to that particular topic. And the chapters often flip back between being written by Vanessa & then Helen’s points of view. But once I got used it, I really liked that aspect. It was like you might get a preview of something & then you were looking forward to reading more {or at least that’s how it felt to me}. I also really enjoyed the dual points of view. Hearing Helen’s take on the men in Vanessa’s life cracked me up. They’re thoughts of the death of Vanessa’s father were so sad.
I think if you enjoy memoirs in general, especially ones on celebrities, you’d definitely like reading You Have No Idea. If your interested in more info & others thoughts on the book, jump on over to BlogHer’s Now Reading: You Have No Ideato join the discussion.
This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.
My guess is that this will turn into a two {or three+} part post. My pre-babies cloth diaper plans, how things are going once we’re home & doing it, how cloth diapering happens once I’m back at work & them at day care.
I figured I’d share my stash & plans now for cloth diapering the babies. This could will be funny to look back on. I’ve mentioned before that thanks to blog giveaway wins & the Haute Green party last August, I have a decent starter stash of pocket & AIO diapers as well as a pack of FuzziBunz cloth wipes. My friend Jenny passed down her size NB & size one Green Mountain prefolds & my book club buddy Jamie is letting us borrow 20+ Kissaluv fitteds & a few covers {Thank y’all!}.
Our my plan is to start using cloth on the babies fairly soon after they get home & after we use up the two packs of NB disposables from showers. We’ll use a mix of the Kissaluvs & prefolds with a snappi, using covers for both, & see which we like best. I think we have enough fitteds & prefolds to be able to go a couple days between laundry washes, but we’ll need a few more covers. At this point, I’m holding off on buying anymore until I see which brands works best.
Over the last few months, I’ve purchased four Thirties covers, been given another one & had received one at the BH party {mostly in size XS or 1}. This past Thursday, I went to a cloth diaper class at a local boutique & after hearing the store owner rave about Flip covers, I purchased two of those. I also ordered two Rumparooz NB sized covers last week. Are there other covers y’all would recommend?
I think we’ll wait on trying the pockets & AIOs {most are 8 lbs+ & I don’t expect Z & L to be that big}. I’ve heard pockets & AIOs are great for night time, so I’m guessing we’ll move in that direction when they’re big enough. As you might be able to spot on the laundry line, we have one Bumgenius freetime AIO, an Apple Cheeks size one, two Itti Bittis {both size ones, a pocket & an AIO}, a SoftBums pocket, a Thirties duo wrap, a Charlie Banana pocket, a Happy Heiny’s pocket & a FuzziBunz pocket. Like the covers, I’m willing to review/try more brands & also then purchase more of our favorites.
Sunday night, I washed all the brand new cloth diapers ~ the covers, pockets, AIOs, inserts & wipes. Admittedly, I was a bit nervous & overwhelmed. You know the saying, “opinions are like a$$holes, everyone’s got one”, that’s how I felt as I was asking for how-to-wash-CDs advice. So I stopped searching online & asking everyone, & I just listened to a few friends & went with what they’d done/do.
First cloth diaper wash
We have a top loading Whirlpool washer & I discovered it has a Heavy wash with a Rinse, Spin, Rinse cycle. I used Tide free & gentle liquid detergent {this is a bit controversial} although I’m looking into ordering some Country Save or making my own powder for the long run. I also have Rockin Green & Eco Nuts samples I plan to try. For the first cycle, I put everything in, set the water level to medium, the water temperature to HOT/COLD {I don’t have a HOT/WARM option} & poured in the Tide {to the 2 line in the cap}. I checked to make sure the water level covered the diapers {it did}, then opened a book on the couch near by. I went to check it again at the first rinse {still some bubbles} & again at the second rinse {no bubbles}.
Since I saw no bubbles, I knew had been told it was okay to then take out the covers & pocket diapers. Again there’s some discussion on line drying vs throwing them in the dryer on low. Since it was the first time, I line dried.
Drying Covers & Pocket Diapers
In the washer then, the inserts, wipes, & AIO diapers remained. I’d read the wipes only needed to be washed once but I figured why the heck not wash them again vs trying to figure out what was a wipe & what was a thin insert. Since there was less, I did the same wash cycle, at same temperatures but as a small load size & only poured in a level 1 cap size of Tide. I checked again at the beginning of the second rinse, saw no bubbles, so once that wash was complete, I threw them all in the dryer on low. A few thicker ones weren’t super dry after two dries on low heat, so before I went to bed, I hung those inserts on the drying rack too.
